Before Charles Barkley became a household name as a sports media personality, he was a legendary NBA player on the court. He was, in fact, a bit of a clairvoyant. In 1992, Barkley appeared on Inside the NBA eight years before he joined the show as a host, during which he foreshadowed the future of his NBA career.
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At the time, Barkley was a star player for the Philadelphia 76ers. They were the team that gave the eventual Hall-of-Fame big man his first opportunity in the NBA. Despite being a perennial playoff team, the Sixers never had enough to get over the hump.
In the 1992-92 season, they finished with a 35-47 record. That was the worst team record during the Barkley era. It became clear that the Sixers were looking to enter a bit of a retooling phase.
But Barkley was about to turn 30 years old and didn’t have years to waste waiting for Philadelphia to return to relevancy.
Rumors and rumblings began to surface regarding his future. Consequently, during the 1992 NBA playoffs, he joined Ernie Johnson on Inside the NBA and broke his silence about potentially receiving a trade in an emphatic conversation.
“It won’t be the worst thing in the world,” Barkley said. “I think in a bad situation, when a team is not that good if they can get better by trading me, that would be fine.”
Charles Barkley’s first on-air guest spot with Ernie in the TNT studios. Chuck discusses the Playoffs, his uncertain future with the Sixers (1 month later he was dealt to the Phoenix Suns), picks Blazers over Bulls in the ’92 Finals, Jordan (of course) took it personally and responds. (1992)
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Throughout Barkley’s conversation with Johnson, he kept repeating that he would like to stay in Philadelphia. His only exception was that the team made changes so that they didn’t repeat their shortcomings of the past season.
Barkley had nothing against the Sixers organization. His entire motivation boiled down to one thing. “My number one agenda is to win a championship. But we’re not even close and that’s really frustrating,” Barkley proclaimed.
The front office was well aware of Barkley’s frustrations and decided to do good by their franchise star. In the 1992 offseason, the Sixers agreed upon the terms of a trade to send Barkley to the Phoenix Suns.
Surrounded by players such as Kevin Johnson, Dan Majerle and Richard Dumas, Barkley finally had a championship-caliber roster and Phoenix made a push to the 1993 NBA Finals.
But despite the change of scenery, Barkley found himself stopped by Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Unfortunately, the Suns simply couldn’t end the Bulls’ siege. This would turn out to be Barkley’s only appearance in the NBA Finals.
Although he never captured the championship he so desperately wanted, it doesn’t mean Barkley didn’t have a successful NBA career. He is in the Hall of Fame for good reason and remains one of the greatest players to ever touch a basketball.
